But the panel decided that it had no powers to address the issue he complained about. But counsel to the governor, Chief Noruka Udechukwu (SAN), said that, having satisfied itself with the evidence that the House of Assembly was served with the notice of hearing, the panel had no choice but to dismiss the allegations in its entirety. He averred that by their action, the lawmakers had abandoned the impeachment notice and the allegations against the governor. The senior advocate also noted that the failure to produce the rules of procedure for the panel before calling on the CJ to constitute the investigating panel was a failure on the part of the lawmakers which had rendered the proof of the allegations in the impeachment notice impossible.

“Section 188(8) enjoins you to make a report to the House that the allegation has not been proved. I urge you to submit in that report that the allegations have not been proved,” Udechukwu concluded his submission. “Having failed to lead evidence, the panel hereby dismisses the allegations. It is the House of Assembly that by a motion asked the chief judge to set up a panel to investigate the allegations contained in the impeachment notice. The chief judge complied. The panel was set up. The panel then gave the House a hearing notice. It failed to appear,” Usman said, while acceding to the request to dismiss the case.

But though they failed to say how they were going to go about it, members of the state Assembly insisted after last Tuesday’s ruling that the impeachment plot was not over. “We will not act outside the constitution, we will make our decision known soon,” Muhammed Baba Ibaku, chairman, House Committee on Information and Security, told journalists in Abuja. He however dismissed speculations that the lawmakers would seek redress in court. “We don’t have the space to go to court, the constitution has laid down rules for this process. The constitution even states that the court should not interfere with our processes,” he stated.

But the Senior Special Assistant to Governor Al-Makura on Public Affairs, Alhaji Abdulhamid Kwara, advised the PDP to accept the verdict of the panel in good faith in the interest of overall development of the state. “What the state needs is peace so that the governor can focus on developing the state as he has been doing rather than unnecessary distractions coming from aggrieved politicians who are hell bent on causing crises in the state,” he said, while calling on the President, security agencies and well-meaning Nigerians to call members of the PDP to order so as to avoid a breakdown in law and order in the state.

PDP members of Nassarawa Assembly had protested when Justice Sulaiman Dikko heeded their order to set up a panel to probe different allegations of gross misconduct and financial impropriety and breach of oath of office against al-Makura. The blood-baying lawmakers had asked the Chief Judge to reconstitute the panel which had Usman as chairman, and Mohammed Sabo Keana, a former secretary to the state government, Reverend Joel Galadima, Alhaji Abdul Usman, Samuel Chaku, Mohammed Sani Usman and Pastor Daniel Chaga as members, on the claim that some of the personalities were associates of Al-Makura.